The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-10-13

DlVlno DenoulcGlOn. w men any one ATTENDS
to this duty Gods blessing comes upon
him, upon his companion, upon his chill
children, upon his dining. hall, upon
his nursery. The blessing comes in
at the front door, and the back door, and
down through the skylight. God draws a
long mark of credit for services received.
Christ said to his disciples:
He that receiveth you receiveth Me; and he
that giveth a cup OF cold water in the name Of
a disciple shall in no wise lose his reward.
AS we have had SO many things record
ed against us in Heaven. it will be salts
faction to have written, on unfailing
archives, the fact that in the month of
May, or June, or September, or December,
1887, we made the blissful mistake of sup
posing that we were entertaining weak
men like ourselves, when 10! they showed
their pinions before they left, and we
found out that they were angels unawares.
Another reward comes in the good
wishes and prayers of our guests. do
not think ones house ever gets over hav-
ing had good man or woman abide
there. George Whitefield used to scratch
on the window of the room where he was
entertained passage of Scripture, and in
one case, after he left, the whole house
passage on the window-pane The woman
of Shunem furnished little room over
the walls for Elisha, and all the ages have
heard the glorious consequences. On
cold stormy winter night, my father en-
tertained Trueman Osborne. the evangel-
ist, and through all eternity will thank
God that Trueman Osborne stopped at
our house. How many of our guests have
hive, ,1rhf 20, IoIa L.
and help! There is legend told of st.
Sebald, that in his Christian rounds he
used to stop for entertainment at the
house of poor cartwright. Coming
there one day he found the
cartwright and his family freezing for the
lack of any fuel. st. Sebald ordered the
man to go out and break the icicles from
the side of the house and bring them in,
and the icicles were brought into the house
and thrown on the hearth, and they began
to blaze Immediately, and the freezing
family gathered around and were warmed
by them. That was legend; but how
often have our guests come in to gather
up the cold, freezing sorrows of our life,
kindling them into illumination and
warmth and good cheer.
He who opens his house to Christian
hospitality turns those who are strangers
into friends. Years will go by, and there
will be great changes in you, and there
will be great changes in them.
Some day you will be sitting in
loneliness, watching a bereavement,
and you will get letter in strange
handwriting, and you will look at the
post-office mark, and say: "Why, don't
know anybody living in that city;" and
you will break the envelope, and there
you will read the story of thanks for your
Christian generosity long years before,
and how they have heard afar off of your
trouble. And the letter will be so full of
kindly "reminiscences and Christian con-
dolence, it will be a plaster large enough
to cover up the deep gashes of your soul.
When we take people into our houses as
Christian guests, we take them into our
sympathies forever. In bort, Holland,
soldier with a sword at his side stopped at
a house desiring lodging and shelter.
The woman of the house at first refused
admittance, saying that the men of
the house were not at home; but when he
showed his credentials, that he had been
honorably discharged from the army, he
was admitted and tarried during the night.
In the night time there was a knocking at
the front door, and two ruffians broke in
to despoil that household. No sooner had
they come over the door-sill than the
armed guest, who had primed his piece
and charged it with slugs, met them, and
telling the woman to stand back, am
happy to say, dropped the two assaulting
desperadoes dead at his feet. Well, now
there are no bandits providing around to
destroy our houses; but how often it is
that we find those that have been our
guests become our defenders. We gave
them shelter first, and then afterwards, in
the great conflict of life, they fought for
our reputation; they fought for our prop
erty; they fought for our soul.
Another reward that comes from
Christian hospitality is in the assurance
that we shall have hospitality shown to
us and to ours. In the upturnings of this
life, who knows in what city or land we
may be thrown, and how much we NAV
need an open door? There may come no
such crisis to us, but our children may be
thrown into some such strait. He who 10
in Christian manner hospitable has q
free pass through all Christendom. 1t may
be that you will have been dead fifty
years before any such stress shall come
upon one of your descendants, but do you
not suppose that God can remember fifty
years? and the knuckle of the grandchild
will be heard against the door of some
stranger, and that door will open,
and it will be talked over in
heaven, and it will be said: ssThat mans
grandfather, fifty years ago, gave shelter
to stranger, and now a strangers door
is open for a grandson"
Among the Greeks, after entertaining
and being entertained, they take a piece
of lead and cut it in two, and the host takes
one-half of the piece of lead and the guest
takes the other half as they part. These
two pieces of lead are handed down from
generation to generation, and from family
to family, and after awhile, perhaps one
of the families in want or in trouble go
out with this one piece of lead and find
the other family with the corresponding
piece of lead, and no sooner is the tally
completed than the old hos.
pitality is aroused and eter-
nal friendship pledged. So the
memory of Christian hospitality will
go down from generation to generation,
and from family to family, and the tally
will never be lost, neither in this world